I'm pretty good at Google, and the USADA has never claimed to have samples from Lance that have tested positive for anything. If you have some insider knowledge that they do have this, let the rest of us in on it.

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USADA details key role Ferrari played in Tour success

The US Anti-Doping Agency's reasoned decision gives evidence of doping by Lance Armstrong dating from his first Grand Tour after his return from cancer - the 1998 Vuelta a Espana - through to his seven Tour de France wins and even his more recent comeback years.

The timeline reveals that a brush with near death did not deter Armstrong from doping with dangerous and illegal substances, but that he paid millions to rebuild himself into a rider who was, like the fictional television hero, The Six Million Dollar Man, "better, faster, stronger".

USADA reveals an intimate role played by Dr. Michele Ferrari in masterminding Armstrong's Tour de France success, a relationship that ran from before his diagnosis with cancer in 1996 through to his comeback in 2009. USADA was able to trace more than a million dollars in payments to the Italian doctor, with payments ranging from 1996 to 2006.

"The evidence in this case includes banking and accounting records from a Swiss company controlled by Dr. Ferrari reflecting more than one million dollars in payments by Mr. Armstrong, extensive email communications between Dr. Ferrari and his son and Mr. Armstrong during a time period in which Mr. Armstrong claimed to not have a professional relationship with Dr. Ferrari," USADA revealed.

The evidence is counter to statements from Armstrong, in which he claims to have severed his professional relationship with Ferrari in 2004.

The report includes numerous eyewitness accounts from Armstrong's teammates which were detailed in affidavits: [Tyler] Hamilton confirmed that, "Dr. Ferrari injected [him] with EPO on a number of occasions." Hamilton's first injection of EPO from Dr. Ferrari came in Dr. Ferrari's camper while training at Sestriéres in 1999).

"Tyler Hamilton's testimony that Dr. Ferrari's training plan for him included EPO is perfectly consistent with the testimony of each of the other five U.S. Postal Service riders who have testified to working with Dr. Ferrari. In addition, all three of the Italian cyclists who worked with Dr. Ferrari, and whose witness statements are part of the evidence in this case, also confirm Dr. Ferrari's program involves EPO use," USADA wrote. Those riders include Leonardo Bertagnolli and Filippo Simeoni.

USADA's report states that Ferrari was closely involved with Armstrong's team, advising key domestiques such as Hamilton, Hincapie, Christian Vande Velde, Floyd Landis, Tom Danielson and Kevin Livingston -who was not listed as a witness in this case.

"Multiple handwritten training plans for Kevin Livingston were found in Dr. Ferrari’s files during a search of his residence in the first investigation of Dr. Ferrari. The cyclists who have worked with Dr. Ferrari describe handwritten training plans prepared by Dr. Ferrari, and have testified that he placed notations on their plans to indicate the dates on which they were supposed to use performance enhancing drugs. Multiple asterisks are an evident feature on all of the training plans in the file for Kevin Livingston," USADA states.

George Hincapie, who has admitted to doping in a statement released ahead of USADA's document, said that Lance Armstrong introduced him at his behest in 2000. He was told the annual fee for Ferrari's services was $15,000.

"Dr. Ferrari told me that the team doctors would assist me with the blood doping program and they did," Hincapie testified. He worked with Ferrari from 2000 through 2006 while helping Armstrong win his record number of Tours de France, including a stage win on the Pla d'Adet in 2005.

Ferrari was banned for life by USADA in July after refusing to take his case to arbitration.

The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) will release to the public its "reasoned decision" document today, detailing the evidence it has amassed against Lance Armstrong and his US Postal Service team associates who engaged in what USADA calls "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen".

But in a press release issued this morning, USADA states that its 1000 page dossier not only includes testimony from 26 individuals, including 15 riders "with knowledge of the US Postal Service Team (USPS Team) and its participants' doping activities", but also "direct documentary evidence including financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong!!

So what now 26 people have an axe to grind with Lance. Even big George spilled the beans.

I was one of the biggest Lance fans- watched the tour every year he won, rooted like crazy for the Postal guys and even made a trip to Austin to ride in one of the first Ride for the Roses events he did in the early years of Livestrong. I distinctly remember crying on an airplane while reading "It's not about the bike" and being so moved by the story. Having said that, in the last 2-3 years, it's become more clear that Lance, like all the other cyclists in his generation, used PEDs. I don't think this makes him a bad guy by default; I still really admire Andreu, Hincapie, Landis, DZ and many of the other cyclists on the team and I'm glad to see the came clean (albeit it under duress). The recent essays from Jonathan Vaughters and Levi in the NY times and Wall Street Journal respectively really put into perspective the pressure cyclists were under to cheat the system. I love the attacks they are now under for in essence testifying to a plea bargain. If we decide to get rid of that system, our whole judicial system is going to grind to a halt

I am getting tired of the Lance Fan Boys saying USADA was on a "witch hunt." Their job is to investigate and go after athletes suspected of using PEDs. If they don't do it, who will? At least right now, the current rules ban PEDs and we get all pissed off when one of OUR athletes loses to someone who has used PEDs (e.g. Beckie Scott in Olympic XC skiing). USADA has the same role with athletes that the SEC has with Wall Street or the FBI has with criminals; they are there to police things and try to ensure a level playing field. It's likely not a fun job but we, as fans, still want them to do it, right?

The evidence of the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team-run scheme is overwhelming and is in excess of 1000 pages, and includes sworn testimony from 26 people, including 15 riders with knowledge of the US Postal Service Team (USPS Team) and its participants’ doping activities. The evidence also includes direct documentary evidence including financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong and confirm the disappointing truth about the deceptive activities of the USPS Team, a team that received tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding.

Together these different categories of eyewitness, documentary, first-hand, scientific, direct and circumstantial evidence reveal conclusive and undeniable proof that brings to the light of day for the first time this systemic, sustained and highly professionalized team-run doping conspiracy.

The evidence of the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team-run scheme is overwhelming and is in excess of 1000 pages, and includes sworn testimony from 26 people, including 15 riders with knowledge of the US Postal Service Team (USPS Team) and its participants’ doping activities. The evidence also includes direct documentary evidence including financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong and confirm the disappointing truth about the deceptive activities of the USPS Team, a team that received tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding.

Together these different categories of eyewitness, documentary, first-hand, scientific, direct and circumstantial evidence reveal conclusive and undeniable proof that brings to the light of day for the first time this systemic, sustained and highly professionalized team-run doping conspiracy.

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What does this "scientific data and laboratory test results" consist of?

• The US anti-doping agency has charged Lance Armstrong with organizing and enforcing "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." In a 200-plus page report with hundreds of pages of supporting documents, the Usada presents evidence that Armstrong used banned substances throughout his career and coerced others into doing so.

• For the first time the report discloses the testimony of George Hincapie, a former Armstrong teammate and a widely respected figure in the cycling world. Hincapie said Armstrong used EPO, testosterone and other banned substances and engaged in illegal blood transfusion. He describes many scenes of drug use.

• In addition to using banned substances himself, Armstrong pressured other riders to do so and threatened them with ejection from the team if they did not comply, the report says. A subsection of the report is devoted to "retaliation against witnesses."

Anyone who remains unconvinces will not be convinced unless they personally saw Armstrong doping. I never had any doubt and certainlty don't now.

About the testing - most of these guys never failed one either. Why exactly woudl Hincapie be lying? He just retired and has now discredited his career. Give me a break. Why were they paying Ferrari? They knew when the tests were coming and/or cheated the tests and hid from the testers when they knew they woudl fail.

If someone kills a person with a gun and 11 people testify that they saw it, you can still convict the person even if the prosecution can't produce the gun.

In reading through the affidavits, the best has to be Dave Zabriskie. Two highlights:

"In 2002, I started entertaining the Team on long bus rides with various and sundry songs. I remember one time that year I was at the front of the bus and sang a song to Johan about EPO (to the tune of Jimi Hendrix's song Purple Haze) that I heard from (unknown rider) and it stuck in my head. Johan laughed along as I sang.

EPO all in my veins
Lately things just don't seem the same
Acton' funny, but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I pass this guy"

"I began to ask questions. I was afraid of the health risks of using EPO and I had a lot of questions, such as: was it safe? Would I be able to have children? Would it cause any physical changes? Would I grow larger ears? I persisted with many questions."

So the question remains... if Armstrong doped so much and ran such a huge doping operation, how come none of the blood and urine samples he's provided can be shown to contain banned drugs?

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Two reasons:
1) The PED users are ordinarily one or two steps up from the drug testers. I'm in the medical field and have looked at this quite a bit. It's really hard to test for someone who is storing his own blood and putting it back into his system. EPO is tricky depending on the form of it used. Steroids are a bit easier but it also depends on what they've been using and some of the new ones are tough. HGH is getting better. There was a great documentary on ESPN last night about Ben Johnson/Carl Lewis and the other sprinters. It ends with one of the drug testing guy talking about when he went back and tested samples with better tests 4-5 years after the Olympics and things lit up. He decided it wasn't worth pursuing it any more

2) I get the sense that Postal had some sort of agreement with some of the testing people. Lance even donated money to some of the drug testing for the UCI. Everybody was making huge money off Lance and it was hard to stop that wave. It would have been the equivalent of Major League Baseball really testing McGuire and Sosa in in 98/99. It's hard to bring down the people that are bring so much interest and money to your sport.

Well it hasn't been 4-5 years. It's been 10-15 years. Why can't the USADA take some of those old samples and test them? If testing methods are so much better than in 1999 surely it would "light up" as you say.

Watched 9.79 last night after reading all the Armstrong stuff. Really well done. I don't know why, but I came away from it thinking Johnson, Lewis and Linford Christie were all taking PEDs but Calvin Smith wasn't.

at the end of the day, all the top riders and teams were doping. festina, astana, usps, you name them. they were all doping to stay competitive in the peloton. so just give everyone who raced from 1999-2006 a lifetime ban and scratch all the records. the playing field was level back then. heck, lance raced in an era where everyone doped and he was the fastest guy in those TdFs against a field of riders who have either been found guilty of doping or who have admitted to doping. it is what is is.

nothing anyone does, not USADA, can change the past so learn from history and press for change in the future.

Eh, again, even the doping doctors will tell you that it's not a "level playing field." Not everyone's body responds in the same way to EPO and whatnot. And think about one of the main headlines of the whole reasoned decision. People are calling it the largest and most sophisticated doping program in sport. Or something along those lines.

Eh, again, even the doping doctors will tell you that it's not a "level playing field." Not everyone's body responds in the same way to EPO and whatnot. And think about one of the main headlines of the whole reasoned decision. People are calling it the largest and most sophisticated doping program in sport. Or something along those lines.

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and people say cycling is a boring sport...just be the first to get to the finish line, heh? there's so many layers of strategy involved in cycling. more than anyone ever imagined! they were able to devise the most sophisticated cheating program in the history of sports. now that's exciting stuff! :twisted:

sure, not everyone's body responds in the same way to EPO, but i'm sure they were using more than just EPO. landis was caught using testosterone. so everyone was trying to figure out which combo of PEDs their bodies would respond best to. seems lance and dr. ferrari was able to find the best cheating protoccol for his body. doesn't change the fact that all the top riders were using PEDs and also trying to find the best combo of drugs for their body, too.

at the end of the day, what good does it do to ban lance for life at this point? he's done racing anyways. he's made his money. it's a hollow victory. they can't change what's happened in the past so just chalk it up to experience and devise better testing methods to prevent and catch the cheats in the future. they should make the punishment more severe if caught cheating. a 2 yr ban isn't enough to dissuade individuals from doping. make it a 5 yr ban. cyclists don't start hitting their prime until the mid 20s anyways so by the time a 5 yr ban is up, they won't have many productive years left in their career. risking their entire career to dope? that will make them think twice before they decide to cheat.

Looking forward to the publication of tell-all memoirs and insider accounts coming up in the next 12 months. I'd be interested to read of UCI's complicity in all this, as I agree with the line that Armstrong was too big a star that the governing body could not afford to lose.

It's complete nonsense. We all know who won those 7 Tour de Frances from 1999-2005, having beaten off cancer that had given him a very low chance of survival. The USADA asks us to believe that Armstrong, was not only a taker of PEDs while simultaneously passing hundreds of drug tests and winning 7 Tour de France titles, but was also the leader of pushing PEDs onto other cyclists, and that the evidence of the witnesses who accuse Armstrong (including PED users like Hamilton and Landis) is sacred, despite the plea bargaining scandals that dominate the US justice system.

Its rather insulting and implausible that people would perjure themselves just to get Lance and the idea that USADA is on some irrational and conspiratorial crusade is implausible, to say the least.

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So that's implausible, yet the USADA's story of Armstrong not only winning 7 Tour de Frances and passing hundreds of drug tests while taking PEDs, but pushing drugs onto other cyclists and running "the most sophisticated doping operation ever seen" is plausible? It would be utterly laughable if it wasn't for the fact that they've smeared Armstrong's reputation.